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New Web site helps simplify language training

The Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., launched a new Web site July 1 to simplify ordering its language-training materials.

DLI distributes about 250,000 of its Language Survival Kits a year, and before the Web site was launched, those were ordered by phone or via e-mail to the DLI Foreign Language Center.

Now it’s as easy as filling an online shopping cart with the click of the mouse.

“There is even a picture of a little shopping cart,” DLIFLC spokeswoman Natela Cutter said of the new Language Materials Distribution System, or LMDS.

The kits contain pocket-sized booklets with audio CDs in 30 languages on a variety of useful topics such as medical terminology, search and cordon commands and public affairs phrases.

Hundreds of downloads have been completed of the Language Survival Kits and a newer product called Headstart, a language DVD program that uses computer animation to teach an 80-hour, self-paced lesson.

The Headstart program is more intensive than the Language Survival Kit and so far offers three languages — Iraqi Arabic, Pashto and Dari. The interactive program teaching both exposes the user to language and culture familiarization with oral practice using avatars that talk back.

The Web site, https://lmds.monterey.army.mil, is accessible to holders of Common Access Cards, who must register and receive DLIFLC approval before orders can be placed and shipped.

Some language-training products are publicly available for service members who are deployed or otherwise unable to access the restricted site and other nonmilitary users such as like nongovernmental organizations and the general public.

“It’s taxpayer dollars, why not share it with the general public,” Cutter said.

The public site can be viewed by going to https://lmds.dliflc.edu/home.aspx.